And So It Begins

Grad School Rears It's Ugly Head

John Updike is one of my favorite authors.  He seems to effortlessly and precisely articulate the psychological atmosphere of every story he tells.  I heard once that he made a point of writing everyday.  Here is a little poem he wrote about... well, this:

January

The days are short, 

The sun a spark,

Hung thin between

The dark and dark.

Fat snowy footsteps 

Track the floor.

Milk bottles burst

Outside the door.

The river is

A frozen place

Held still between 

The trees of lace.

The sky is low.

The wind is gray.

The radiator

Purrs all day.

Today in a podcast with Seth Godin, a marketing guy talking about The Art of Noticing and Then Creating, I heard that, "The only people who are good at the beginning are lucky."  He spoke about art not being "following a manual, reading a dummy's book, looking for a map. It tends to be people who work with a compass instead. Who have an understanding of true north and are willing to solve a problem in an interesting way."

The challenge seems to be trusting what pulls you - or, compels you - and to realize that creating something good requires lots of work, commitment and the risk to do something interesting.  John Updike noticed and created books and books of literature, with lots of discipline and persistence.  To me, Grad School possibly requires a similar kind of effort (although I do not write everyday, like Updike).  So does building into your day robust healthy habits, even on the days "between the dark and dark" or going out on a limb and contributing ideas that are out of the ordinary, or perhaps - extraordinary.

Here's to persistence towards what pulls you and hope that it will get you to where you want to be.